


you speak it, too

by SilenceIsGolden15



Series: Voltron Oneshots [46]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Everyone takes a nap and its a good time, Fluff, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Light Angst, Platonic Cuddling, Recovery, Worried Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-27 09:21:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18736174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilenceIsGolden15/pseuds/SilenceIsGolden15
Summary: After a chest wound puts Keith in a pod, Shiro waits at his side and tries not to lose himself.





	you speak it, too

**Author's Note:**

> Behold, the sequel.

The pod opened a few minutes after five in the morning. Back on Earth the sun would’ve just begun to make the horizon blush as the glass slid back, pouring cold fog over the floor of the medbay and the bodies sleeping on it. The other paladins had all managed to doze off again, probably due to the comfort of not being alone, but Shiro still hadn’t slept a wink by the time he was catching Keith as he slumped out of the pod. 

For a moment all was quiet. Keith’s body was still cool from the pod, but his breath against Shiro’s shoulder was even, and that was enough to make him sigh in relief. Then Keith raised his head and looked up at him, blinking slowly. 

“Hey,” he said, his voice grating, and Shiro smiled. The static was beginning to recede. He could feel Keith’s body heat beginning to return, pressing into Shiro’s aching muscles, and it wasn’t the only one of Shiro’s senses that were waking up. 

“Hey,” Shiro answered in kind. He kept his voice low so that he wouldn’t disturb the others. Not entirely for selfless reasons, he had to admit. Usually when someone came out of a pod it was a group thing, everyone waiting on the edge of their seats to mob the person as soon as they woke up. It was nice to have Keith to himself every once in a while. 

It felt like the old days before Kerberos, when Shiro would wake him up early to ride their hovers in the chilly desert, stars still twinkling overhead, stopping at the top of the cliffs to watch the sunrise then racing back down. In moments like these they didn’t have to be paladins, not a leader and his right hand. Just Shiro and Keith. Friends. Brothers.

Keith pulled away and straightened up, stretching out his cramped muscles. Then he yawned and rubbed his eyes and ran his hands through his unruly hair, and Shiro didn’t say anything, just reassured himself of the fact that Keith was alive and here with him, not bleeding out in an enemy battleship with his chest torn open. For the first time Shiro was actually kind of grateful they’d gotten caught up in all this Voltron nonsense-- that sort of wound would’ve been fatal back on Earth. Here in the Castle it wouldn’t even scar.

Not physically, anyway. 

Keith’s voice brought him back from his reverie. 

“Is everybody else ok?”

Shiro swallowed, his throat suddenly tight at the reminder of what had happened the day before.

“Yeah, we’re all alright.” He swallowed again. “You almost weren’t, though.”

Keith’s eyes dropped to the floor. The muscle in his jaw ticked as he ground his teeth. 

“About that. Shiro, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have given up like that.”

Shiro was shaking his head before Keith even dared the glance upwards. 

“No, Keith--”

“I should’ve kept fighting,” he blurted out, loudly enough to make Lance stir. The two of them held their breath until he stopped moving, then Keith continued, this time in a whisper. “I shouldn’t have given up, and I shouldn’t have snapped at you. You were the one who told me never to give up.”

Shiro’s hand on his shoulder silenced his anxious babble. He hated the way Keith winced just a little at the motion, after all these years still fearing for Shiro to turn on him at any moment. As if after all of this he could ever walk away. 

“Normally, that would be true,” said Shiro, keeping his voice low. “But not this time. That wound was…” Even just thinking about it made him shudder again. “It was really bad. I couldn’t expect anyone to make it out on their own hurt like that, and I shouldn’t have asked you to, either.”

Keith bit his lip. Shiro was familiar enough with his expressions to read this one-- the furrow of his brow and the way his eyes flickered said he was searching for a reason to argue. He hated admitting he was wrong-- and he hated admitting Shiro was wrong even more. 

“Listen. Everyone has limits. Everyone has a breaking point. And if anyone’s going to be blamed for this, it’s going to be me for not listening when you hit yours.”

Keith just looked at him for a moment. Then he let out a tired exhale and leaned into him, turning their arms-length position into a hug that Shiro was more than happy to accept. He folded his arms around Keith’s shoulders and gave a light squeeze. 

“I was scared,” Keith murmured, almost too quietly to hear, and Shiro had to blink back tears for the millionth time. He pressed his cheek to the top of Keith’s head.

“I was too.”

They were quiet for a few seconds. Then Keith yawned again, and Shiro chuckled a little. 

“Tired?”

He felt Keith nod into his chest. “A little.”

“You should go to bed then.”

Keith didn’t answer, and Shiro knew how to interpret the silence. He was tired and lethargic from coming out of the pod, but still keyed up from the battle. The others had hours to come down from it, but Keith had been unconscious the whole time. And after a battle like this, after being rattled like that, the last thing Keith wanted was to be alone. He wanted comfort and someone to be there, even though he’d been taught for so long to refuse it. 

“I’m tired too,” he said, and it wasn’t a lie. “Why don’t we lie down with the others? Hunk brought pretty much every blanket in the Castle.”

Keith huffed a quiet laugh. “Yeah, that sounds nice.”

Together they shuffled across the room to the haphazard pile of blankets. They laid in their usual position, Shiro flat on his back with Keith curled against his side, letting Shiro run his fingers through his hair in soothing repetition. Keith let out a pleased sigh once they finally settled down, and Shiro finally felt how heavy his eyelids were and the fatigue in his limbs. 

Keith shifted under his arm. Something about the motion brought up memories, like dreams in his half-asleep brain as it tried to shake off the remnants of the static. The Garrison again, when Keith was barely fifteen and had just started to accept cuddles and casual touches, so long as someone else initiated them. He wouldn’t be relaxed like Keith was now. Rather he’d tense up, not out of fear of retribution, but the fear that if he moved at all Shiro would pull away from him.

It’d taken a long time for Shiro to figure that part out. 

“How long d’you think we have,” mumbled Keith, bringing Shiro out of his reverie, “before the others wake up?”

Shiro hummed and pretended to think deeply. “A few hours, at least. We had a long day.”

He couldn’t see the face Keith made in answer, but he felt instinctively that it was a smile.

“Good.”

* * *

When Pidge awoke, she felt like she’d been sleeping for approximately three centuries. The last thing she wanted was to wake up, undoubtedly to go back to everyone staring glumly at Keith’s pod like it was an open casket funeral, but despite all the blankets the metal floor was starting to hurt her neck and she knew if she didn’t get up now she’d regret it later. So, reluctantly, she hauled herself upright, shoving her fingers blindly under her glasses to rub away the grittiness and the remnants of dried tears. 

But when she finally opened her eyes, she half thought she hadn’t woken up at all and was still dreaming, because Lance was awake and he wasn’t making a sound. 

Lance and Hunk were both awake, lounging side by side in the grand blanket pile, staring up at the ceiling and not saying a word, which with Lance was considered a minor miracle. Looking to her left, Pidge was even more surprised by the sight of the pod, open and decidedly empty of injured Red Paladins.

“Uh,” she began, “what’s--”

“Shhhh!” both of the boys hissed in unison, cutting her off. Pidge scowled and opened her mouth again, but Lance dragged a frantic hand over his neck in a gesture to stop, and Hunk pointed to the other side of the blanket pile. She followed his finger and her jaw dropped.

Lying there, with about three blankets bunched up under his head to serve as a pillow, was Shiro, sleeping soundly for probably the first time since Pidge had met him. Next to him was a fully healed Keith, curled into a ball with Shiro’s arm around him and his head on Shiro’s chest. A small smile was on his lips.

It was so adorable Pidge felt her heart stop for a solid three seconds. 

Hunk and Lance were snickering silently at her reaction, but she couldn’t help it. With all of the Voltron stuff going on, and looking for her family, and between Shiro’s leaderly facade and Keith’s brash attitude, she sometimes forgot that they were so close. She forgot how much they mattered to each other, how much they loved each other. It reminded her, in the most heart-aching way, of Matt.

Hunk, as though he could sense her thoughts, held out his arm to her. And though it made her flush with embarrassment Pidge wound up accepting it, clambering over the blankets to press against his side, and within a few minutes was tumbling once again into slumber. 


End file.
